THE PROVENANCE OF JOHN CALVIN'S EMPHASIS ON THE ...

the first edition of his Institutio (1536), and an emphasis on the Spirit's role regarding
communication emerges in Calvin's expression very soon after. So the resources of
Calvin's 1536 Institutio cannot be overlooked as possible resources for this inflection in
his expression. The survey of secondary literature above, then, suggests that works—
even some specific works—of especially Luther, Zwingli, Bucer, and Melanchthon
must be taken into consideration in some fashion.
This is not to suggest, however, that looking at the works of Calvin's
contemporaries alone is sufficient. The third chapter of this study has demonstrated that
Calvin was reading the fathers concurrent with his reading of prominent reformers'
published writings. He was reading the fathers, and thus in effect reading them in
conversation with one another and in conversation with the writings of his
contemporaries. As one scholar put it, Calvin quickly assimilated what he read such that
it fast became part of his own theological thought and vocabulary. 560 Apart from
Tylenda's explicit though non-elaborated reference to Calvin's patristic reference in the
dedicatory letter that prefaces the 1536 Institutio, seemingly little consideration is given
by these authors of this fact. So, as with the contemporaries already mentioned, what is
known of Calvin's patristic and medieval reading must also be taken into account.
Again, the primary interest of this study is with the emergence—very soon after
the publication of the 1536 Institutio—of Calvin's appeal to the role of the Holy Spirit
concerning the true communication (and reception) of Christ's body and blood in the
sacrament, as well as, eventually, its very exhibitio. Thus attention now turns to a brief
survey of previous scholars' awareness of development in Calvin's doctrine of the Lord's
560 Ganoczy, Young Calvin, 75.
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